


Assurance

by BubbaKnowlton



Series: Mother of Monsters/Echidna AU [4]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Childbirth, Eggpreg, Established Relationship, Evil Space Husbands, M/M, Mother of Monsters AU, Mpreg, Oviposition, brief mention of sex, echidna AU, lots and lots of monster babies, xeno/alien Hux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 18:12:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8677783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubbaKnowlton/pseuds/BubbaKnowlton
Summary: The Mother of Monsters/Echidna!Hux AU is created by the_Archivist and IKylo tries to be a decent father (and kind of fails, kind of makes up for it) for he and Hux's many alien babies after he manages to upset one of them. Hux, meanwhile, is expecting another baby, one that needs to stay in water to survive.





	

**Author's Note:**

> f i n a l l y I finish another echidna AU fic lmao. This one takes place pre-TFA  
> -Simon starts off life as an aquatic bab before being able to float through the air  
> -originally i was going to name this fic Simon Says but i. stopped myself  
> -anyways in this fic we learn about Ren's start of many 'little' lies he tells Hux over the years (which. will come back to bite him later on)

**Assurance**

"Wait..."

"Relax. It's just my tongue, there's no way you can get pregnant from this." Although, now as he said it, Ren wasn't so sure. Considering that their firstborn had been a result of him force-choking Hux, with absolutely no skin to skin contact, anything was possible. Hux didn't doubt him, though, and merely spread his legs wider.

' _It'll be fine,_ ' Ren convinced himself. He pushed the worry away and focused on the task at hand -seeing if using his tongue to fuck his husband was enjoyable at all.

-

Hux got pregnant from it. It was revealed just a week later when he threw up at the smell of blood and ash on Ren when he came back from a short mission. Until Ren had aired out the room, gotten fresh clothes, and gotten thoroughly cleansed, Hux had been nauseous and snappy. A quick blood test by a medical droid confirmed their suspicions and Hux was left to lay down and wait out the fading nausea.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's fine, Ren. I'll feel better in a bit."

"No, for getting you pregnant again."

"Can't be helped. Now- just stop talking and let me sleep this off."

"Oh, sure. Come on, Argent, let's leave Hux alone." The child reluctantly got up from laying on the opposite side of the bed, and went to follow him out of the room.

"Wait, Argent can stay." Argent happily returned to the bed to snuggle up to their mother. 

\- 

"Open up, Mavin, ahhh-" Hux waved a bite of raw meat in front of their child, who had suddenly become fussy the last few days. They ate just enough, but it was a process to get them to that point. They'd refuse to eat for long period of times before finally eating just a bit. The little shapeshifter just stared up at their mother with their scattered eyes, ignoring their dinner. "Come on, eat your dinner for Mum, won't you? I'll be very happy." Mavin glanced at the meat, but went right back to looking up at Hux.

Ren looked at the two of them, "Any luck?" He was making sure Argent ate slowly. They had a tendency to eat too fast and make themselves sick, or eat too large bites and start choking. Cutting up the large hunks of meat Argent was to eat and hand feeding them was doing the trick. 

"Please, Mavin? You need to eat, or else you won't feel good going to bed on an empty stomach." Mavin shrunk back from the piece as Hux brought it closer. Their eyes drooped, gaze shifting to the side. "Mavin... Please tell me what's wrong. Are you sick? Did you get hurt?" Little spots all over Mavin started shifting out of nervousness, spikes and little bumps growing and receding, turning into grey and back to a pale flesh tone.

Mavin caught Ren staring with unease, and all the growths receded. Mavin looked between him and Hux, and tears started to well up in their eyes. "Mavin?" They took the meat from Hux and started to chew it, but then just spat it out. They turned around, eyes looking downwards. 

"Hey, Hux, um- I know what's wrong with Mavin. Can we talk outside for a minute? Argent, eat your food slowly, okay?"

Hux went to give Mavin a pat, but drew his hand back. "I'll be right back and we'll try again, alright, dear?"

-

As they stood outside of Hux's door, all the kids inside and out of earshot, Ren realized he was in trouble. Hux looked desperate, very stressed, and was putting faith in him that he had a solvable answer to why their child was so upset.

"So? Mavin's been refusing to eat without heavy coaxing, refuses to make noise, hasn't been playing or doing anything with anyone, and is having trouble sleeping. What's the cause?"

"You're _really_ not going to like hearing this."

Hux went pale, "They're sick, then? Ren-"

"No, no. They're physically fine."

"Then what's wrong?!"

"Okay, calm down. Come on, you need to relax. Stress isn't good for the baby."

"Mavin's not eating! Just tell me what's wrong!" Hux clenched his fists.

Drawing this out wasn't helping at all. "It's my fault."

"Explain, _now._ "

"Listen, Hux, I just want you to know, that nothing is more important to me than our family. I would do anything for you and our kids. I would-"

"Tell me!"

"Mavin freaks me out."

Hux froze. "What?"

Gods, he felt horrible admitting this. "Out of all the kids so far- Mavin just- they creep me out the most. They're all odd looking but Mavin changes shape all the time, and it just... makes me uneasy when I look at them, they're weird looking. I said something to Phasma a few days ago, and Mavin overheard it. Now they're upset with the way they look and don't want to do anything 'weird' in front of anyone."

While he was talking, Hux had shifted from disbelieving to furious. 

"...So..."

"You don't like the kids, that's what you're saying, and Mavin heard you."

"No, that's not what I said."

"It sure sounds like it!" Hux's voice rose. "Is that why you only spend time with Argent? I thought it was just favoritism, which is bad to begin with, but it's because they're invisible when they're happy!"

"No, Argent just follows me around all the time."

"So you don't like Argent either?"

"You're not listening to me, Hux!" 

The anger switched to heartbreak. "How can you not love our kids? I thought- you're not going to even love the baby either, are you? Just because they aren't humanoid- I always thought that _you_ wouldn't care about looks, considering you were practically raised by Snoke, a nonhuman, but-" Tears welled up in Hux's eyes, and his voice broke, "Pf-Pfassk you."

"Hux..."

"I guess this is what I should have expected since you never even wanted to be with me in the first place, huh?" Hux tried to give a forced laugh but it just came out as a sob. "I didn't give you any choice when I told you to marry me, makes sense."

"I can fix this, Hux, I promise. I'll get used to them, I swear. The kids mean everything to me, and so do you, and the new baby. Don't cry."

"And how are you supposed to do that? You can't just... change how someone feels with just a wave of your hand."

"I'll talk to Mavin and fix everything. You'll see. So calm down, the kids don't like seeing you upset."

-

Mavin had tears streaming from all over them, making a ring of wetness around them. Ren knelt down to be closer to them, and Mavin shrunk in on themselves. "Hey, Marvin."

"It's Mavin." Hux corrected him, getting upset all over again, "You don't even remember their name-"

"I'm used to saying Argent, the 'ar' just slipped out. I know their names." A lie, he wouldn't be able to list them all, but Hux didn't need to know that. "Mavin, I'm sorry I said you looked weird. You don't need to get upset and stop functioning." Mavin clearly didn't believe him at all, so Ren resorted to using the force.

Out of Hux's sight, he lifted his hand a bit and said, "You don't need to stop eating and be upset, I don't think you're weird, forget about what I said." He stopped with the force, "I'm sorry little buddy, so how about we calm down and try to eat some more?"

Hux stepped up and grabbed another bite of meat. He held it to Mavin, expecting to be revoked, but Mavin took it immediately. This time they swallowed it, and looked up, waiting for more. Hux scooped them up and hugged them. "You're all better! Ren, it worked!" 

-

What Ren had found was that Hux was actually easy to please -even if he didn't show it- when it came to non-work related things. With the ship and the building of Starkiller Base, everything had to be perfect, but with personal things, all Hux needed to be happy was to be paid attention to, have little things about his preferences remembered, and just basic nice things.

He liked sleeping curled up to Ren when he was pregnant or with one of the kids, with his belly and/or the baby in the middle of them. Hux liked the small things Ren did for him and the kids that Ren thought was just decency or obligation, like feeding the kids or playing with them, or just taking care of Hux when he was expecting; using the force to ease back aches, giving him an extra pillow, or hugging him when he was upset.

Hux was starved for affection and early on had extremely low expectations for how involved Ren was supposed to be in raising the kids, expectations that Ren seemed to be exceeding just by _not_ leaving Hux to take care of them. Hux's expectations had been and still mostly were just that Ren liked the kids and that the kids knew it or that they weren't affected by how much or little he liked them, that he knew their names, and that he'd keep them from dangerous spots on the ship when they wandered around.

He wasn't very good at the names, but he wasn't going to let Hux know that.

Mavin was huddled between them, snuggling against Hux. They were sound asleep, completely content with the extra attention Hux was giving them. When they were asleep they weren't that odd looking, just a pale mass, expanding and contracting as they breathed. 

Ren felt bad for making them feel so self-conscious. He'd ruined their confidence, and then had to erase the memory of them ever losing it just to make them feel better. Now he would be lying to Hux by continuing with the guise that his little talk had made everything better.

Mavin squirmed slightly, a soft noise coming from them. Dreaming, then. Hux looked to be dreaming as well, eyes moving under his lids. A few strands of hair had fallen out of place, splayed out on Hux's forehead, so Ren reached up to brush them back. Hux didn't notice the touch at all. He brought his hand down to Mavin, and gave them a small pat. It startled Mavin out of their slumber, and two eyes opened underneath his fingers, getting poked. A whine came out of them, and those eyes squeezed shut. 

Hux woke up, blinking groggily. Mavin realized he was awake and the whine turned into a cry. Hux snapped to alertness, "What's wrong?"

"I gave Marvin a pat and poked them in the eyes." He realized that he'd said Mavin's name wrong again and silently hoped Hux wouldn't notice.

"Oh... You're okay, baby... Go back to sleep, your daddy didn't mean it." Hux stroked them gently along their side, where there were no eyes. Once Mavin was back to sleep, he said, "It's _Mavin._ "

"Th- that's what I said."

"...really?"

"Yes. You must be tired, you should go back to sleep too."

"Oh... Goodnight, then."

-

Mavin was back to normal in the morning, eager to play with their siblings and eat breakfast. Hux was much happier as Mavin and the kids were enjoying themselves, scurrying around the room and bumping against him, impatient for their turn to be fed and getting excited as they received their meals. He had a small smile on his face as he gave them all a last check over before getting ready to go to work. 

Ren gave him a kiss before he left, placing a hand over the small swell hidden beneath Hux's uniform shirt. "Don't overwork yourself. I'll be in the gym training with the force if you need me."

"Did you hear that, kids? Your daddy will be in the gym if you need him at all today. I'll be on the bridge or in my office."

A few of them nodded. Peter flopped onto Ren's pillow, their twin following suit and huddling next to them. Greyson jammed themselves underneath the blanket, twisting around until the blanket was a messy cocoon around them. Argent grabbed the other pillow and dragged it under the bed where they were hiding. Hux was radiating adoration for the kids. If it had been anyone other than their children messing up the bed, he'd have been angry.

-

While he was training, he was interrupted twice. Once by a wandering aimlessly small one, missing from its normal group of four other identical siblings. A second time by Argent, who attacked one of his training dummies and startled him with the appearance of a dummy suddenly getting taken down. Then they appeared, growling at the dummy. He managed to shoo them off by telling them they should play with their siblings instead, and Argent took off, vanishing from sight.

When the door slid open a third time and he noticed it, he gave up on training. Looking over, he expected to see another one of the kids, and was pleasantly surprised to see it was Hux instead. The redhead had one hand over his stomach, and met Ren partway into the room.

"Hux."

"Ren. How has training been going?" Ren went to kiss him but he turned away, a mildly pained expression coming onto his face. 

Concerned, Ren asked, "Are you alright?" He lifted a hand to Hux's face.

"Contraction," Hux answered as the pain faded after a bit. "I was on my way to the medbay and decided I wanted you to walk with me instead of waiting for you to show up once I was already there. The medics are expecting us."

"How long have you been in labor?"

"Just a few hours. My waters broke on the bridge, so I put on another uniform. The pain wasn't bad, so I went back to work."

"And now it's bad?"

"No, actually, it's tolerable. I've just got this feeling I need to get in water, and there's only baths in the infirmary. The baby's moving down, too, so we should get going before I need to push. Get your helmet on."

Ren pulled his helmet over with the force and pulled it on. He snuck his hand onto Hux's lower back as they started walking.

-

As soon as they made it to the infirmary, a medical droid waved Hux over to one of the tubs. It gave him a quick scan and affirmed that he was ready to start pushing when he wanted to. He'd gotten more and more uncomfortable as they walked, the baby lowering. With Ren's help, Hux pulled off his uniform and underclothes and got into the bath. He instantly felt better as he did so, sighing. The moment of peace was broken as a contraction started and he had to push. 

The droid pulled a flimsy curtain around the small area and Ren pulled off his helmet. Ren knelt next to the tub, offering Hux his hand. He took it and squeezed, while Ren placed the helmet to the side. The droid came over to hover at the edge of the tub, pulling Hux's legs each out of the water. Then it supported the both of them, keeping them spread. It's optics glowed as it scanned Hux again.

"Oblong mass is close to crowning, General."

Hux just nodded once, focused on pushing. The baby, an egg, was already beginning to stretch his rim. He took even breaths during the reprieve, taking the moment to relax in the warm water. Catching the tidbits of rest made everything feel easier than if he spent the time bracing himself for the next contraction.

He gave a low groan as he pushed again, the egg peaking out. It felt small, would be out shortly. Ren rubbed between his shoulder blades, and Hux appreciated the touch. The next few pushes went by relatively fast, the egg reaching its widest point. He tightened his grip on Ren's hand with the burn of it. Then the egg slipped out with a final push and a grunt. Hux shifted so that he could sit, and cupped the egg in his hands, keeping it beneath the water.

The droid drifted off after checking that Hux's vitals were alright, leaving the couple to figure out what to do with the newest addition to their family.

"It needs to be kept in water. We can't keep it in here, these baths need to be used by the medics, but..."

"When does the ship stop next?"

"In an hour, we're picking up more supplies."

"By a planet?"

"Well, there's planets nearby in the system. What are you thinking?"

"If I can go down and find someplace selling aquatic creature supplies, I can pick up a tank of some kind. So keep the egg in a container until I get back."

-

He neglected to bring credits with him and resorted to using the force on the employees of the store he'd wandered into it, wiping their memories of him for good measure. The tank he picked up seemed acceptable, with a screen top and built in heater.

The trip took two hours, so the egg had only been around for just over three. He lugged the tank up to their quarters. The door slid open before he could even attempt to type in the code. Argent stood at the other side, visible, face pulling back from the panel inside. They darted over to Hux, who was sitting at his desk, a large cup in front of him. All of the kids were gathered in the room, the majority clustered around Hux and on the desk. Argent tucked themselves next to Hux's chair.

"Ren! The egg hatched while you were gone. Come look."

"Really?" He brought over the tank and placed it onto the desk, making sure not to crush any of the kids. Hux reached forward to pull one straggler out of the way. Once the tank was down, he looked into the cup. 

A little creature with a tail, singular eye, and little legs connected by webbing. They peered up at him from the bottom of the cup. The child Hux had moved came close to the cup and aimed their eyestalk in. 

"That's your new sibling, Pear. Aren't they cute?" The child bobbed their eye in an imitation of a nod, and their twin came to join them in looking in. "Don't push your sibling, Peter."

"Did you name the baby yet?" Hux did all the naming, and Ren was content with letting him do so. If he had to carry them and give birth to them, neither of those things enjoyable experiences, he deserved the right to name them. 

"Their name is Simon."

"That's a nice name. Is this tank good? It has a heater, but I wasn't really sure what to get."

"It's perfect, it just needs water."

"Argent, do you want help dad fill up this tank?"

-

As soon as the tank was filled and the heater plugged in, Hux transferred Simon to it by dipping the cup in and tilting it until Simon swam out. Simon swam aimlessly for a few moments, spotted Hux, and swam towards him until they hit the glass. They drifted for a few seconds, body completely still. 

Anxiety spiked from Hux, and the kids all went quiet and froze. Then Simon started to swim again, avoiding the glass. Hux let out a relieved breath, the fear melting away. The kids started to move around again, all wanting to look into the tank up close. Ren secured the top of the tank on.

"Well, that's taken care of. Are you going back to the bridge?"

"No, I'll work from my datapad here. I need to watch over Simon just to make sure they're alright."

"Did they get fed yet? Or do they not eat?" One of the kids didn't need to be fed, sustaining themselves with the force.

"I fed them already."

"How?" They were in water, they wouldn't be able to nurse without being unable to breathe in the air.

Hux reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out a syringe, with a thick end instead of a needle. "Filled this with milk and put the end in Simon's mouth, works the same as bottle feeding."

"How'd you get the milk in?" 

Hux flushed and avoided the question by putting the syringe away and grabbing a datapad. When Ren repeated it, smirking, he asked, "Don't you have training to do?"

"I'm just curious, Hux."

"Snoke won't want you neglecting your training for curiosity."

"Guess I'll have to find out on my own."

"Don't bother."

**Author's Note:**

> Follow/talk to me on Tumblr! @Oblioknowlton or @Tinybibmpreg


End file.
